{"id":40687,"date":"2011-12-09T13:08:59","date_gmt":"2011-12-09T19:08:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/?p=40687"},"modified":"2015-11-11T05:35:41","modified_gmt":"2015-11-11T11:35:41","slug":"top-5-biggest-holiday-spending-sprees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/top-5-biggest-holiday-spending-sprees\/","title":{"rendered":"Top 5 Biggest Holiday Spending Sprees"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/montage5.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"montage\" width=\"500\" height=\"700\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-40692 lazyload\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/montage5.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/montage5-214x300.jpg 214w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 500px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 500\/700;\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding: 0px 0px 0pt 0pt; float: left;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/digg.com\/tools\/diggthis.js\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div style=\"padding: 5px 5px 5pt 5pt; float: left;\"><a name=\"fb_share\" type=\"box_count\" href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Share<\/a><script src=\"http:\/\/static.ak.fbcdn.net\/connect.php\/js\/FB.Share\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div style=\"padding: 0px 2px 0pt 0pt; float: left;\">\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"http:\/\/tweetmeme.com\/i\/scripts\/button.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<p>There is nothing more American than spending the money that could support a Congolese family for a year on a bunch of crap that we don&#8217;t need.\u00a0 Like those candy hearts for Valentines Day, you know the ones that taste like a mix of bone meal and shattered dreams?\u00a0 Nothing says America like spending money on something no one wants, needs or (dear God) consumes all in the name of a holiday almost completely manufactured by corporations.\u00a0 But it makes us feel good, and especially in these trying economic times, its nice to remind ourselves that the electric bill can go to hell, we&#8217;re going to buy some pine-tree branches and expensive electronics!\u00a0 This is America, dammit!\u00a0 And when we spend on Holidays, holy hell do we spend big.\u00a0<br \/>\n<!--more-->\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>Halloween<\/h2>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/11.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"1\" width=\"500\" height=\"340\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-40689 lazyload\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/11.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/11-300x204.jpg 300w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 500px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 500\/340;\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.blogcdn.com\/www.urlesque.com\/media\/2010\/10\/chewyyoda-1288061526.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Image Source<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00a0\u2028\u00a0<br \/>\nComing in at number five in the list of most spendiferous holidays, Halloween clocks in spending close to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.msnbc.msn.com\/id\/21531103\/ns\/business-forbes_com\/t\/halloween-numbers-cost-scare\/#.TuGNZ7JwrcA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">$5 billion<\/a>.\u00a0 That&#8217;s roughly $50-$60 dollars spent for every person that actually celebrates the holiday (people of other cultures and that particularly fun-killing <a href=\"http:\/\/www.holidayatthesea.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/jesus-ween1-620x620.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">brand of Christians<\/a> excluded.\u00a0 While that number is rather large, keep in mind that it does not include the copious amounts of booze, which would likely catapult this holiday to the top of the list.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>So that&#8217;s $5 billion on sexy nurse costumes, sexy pirate costumes, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.costumeattic.com\/images_product\/large\/Forum_Novelties\/56523.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">sexy proctologist costumes<\/a>. Not to mention the candy.\u00a0 To put it into perspective, that $5 billion number is actually higher than <A href=\"http:\/\/gpr.hudson.org\/files\/publications\/GlobalPhilanthropy.pdf\">all corporate donations to foreign aid organizations<\/a> for the entire year.\u00a0 Halloween should get a pass for being a towering monstrosity of consumerism, owing to its unique status as one of the few holidays everyone enjoys.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>Easter<\/h2>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/21.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"334\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-40690 lazyload\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/21.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/21-300x200.jpg 300w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 500px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 500\/334;\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/dcist.com\/attachments\/dcist_sommer\/BushandEasterBunny.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Image Source<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<br \/>\nEaster was yet another childhood excuse to eat so much candy it made us sick.\u00a0 The Easter egg hunt is a particularly venerable piece of America, meriting its own section on the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/eastereggroll\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">White House website<\/a>.\u00a0 So when you&#8217;re talking about what basically amounts to Halloween minus the costumes, it shouldn&#8217;t be any larger than $5 billion, right?\u00a0 Well, no, try <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mybanktracker.com\/bank-news\/2011\/04\/22\/national-retail-federation-easter-spending-increase-year\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">more like $14 billion<\/a>.\u00a0 While the majority of this is spent on food and those really disappointing egg-dyeing kits, a huge portion of this spending is on clothing.\u00a0 And not just clothes for Easter&#8230;Mass?\u00a0 Apparently, a chunk of that big ole $14 billion number comes from the fact that, come Easter, <del>people<\/del> women take the opportunity to refresh their wardrobes for the spring.\u00a0 While it&#8217;s unclear if this is directly related to Easter or just a general trend, being Americans, I&#8217;m going with the \u201cAn excuse to shop and spend money!? HOLY CHRIST!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>Mother&#8217;s and Father&#8217;s Day<\/h2>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Mothers-Day-Pic.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"Mothers-Day-Pic\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-40693 lazyload\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Mothers-Day-Pic.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Mothers-Day-Pic-300x199.jpg 300w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 500px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 500\/333;\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.brutalashell.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/Mothers-Day-Pic.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Image Source<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00a0<br \/>\nTo prevent a Mothers vs. Fathers debate, let&#8217;s just group together the two holidays that have the highest ratio of how often you remember them to how much regret you feel.\u00a0 Despite their somewhat sullied reputations as holidays invented to sell more Hallmark cards that contain some version of \u201cI&#8217;m sorry you&#8217;re so disappointed in me\u201d, celebration of mothers and fathers is actually an old tradition dating back to <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Mother&#039;s_Day\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Greek and Roman times<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The modern incarnation started sometime around the turn of the century, with Mother&#8217;s day being declared a holiday by congress in 1914, and fathers day in 1966.\u00a0 Combined, Americans spend somewhere in the neighborhood of <A href=\"http:\/\/www.slate.com\/articles\/business\/moneybox\/2011\/06\/i_love_you_dad_but_35_less_than_mom.html\">$27 billion<\/a>, with people loving their mothers about $5 billion more than they do their fathers.\u00a0 This comes out to roughly $240 a person every year, a number that has jumped in recent years due to the slight economic recovery and the speculative rise in the costs of finger paints, construction paper and pipe cleaners.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>Valentine&#8217;s Day<\/h2>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/vday.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"vday\" width=\"500\" height=\"373\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-40694 lazyload\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/vday.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/vday-300x223.jpg 300w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 500px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 500\/373;\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/farm1.static.flickr.com\/26\/98174687_9a5daf5c11.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Image Source<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00a0<br \/>\nShort of Christmas, Valentine&#8217;s day is the biggest spending holiday of year for Americans.\u00a0 For 2011, the number was expected to come out slightly ahead of Mother&#8217;s day, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/most-romantic-cities-2011-2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">topping $15 billion<\/a>.\u00a0 And that&#8217;s not even counting the money spent on expensive dates, or the bottles of bourbon you use to drown your crushing, crushing loneliness.\u00a0 And while a box of chocolates and some flowers might set you back $50, the average per-person expenditure actually comes out to the mid-hundreds.\u00a0 Where&#8217;s that extra money coming from? Ask those of us who can barely afford a disgustingly cute Build-A-Bear (look it&#8217;s wearing a sailor&#8217;s uniform! It&#8217;s not supposed to be doing that, <i>it&#8217;s a bear!<\/i>).<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nWell the numbers for Valentine&#8217;s Day are skewed majorly upward by people buying jewelry so expensive if any sensible person received it they&#8217;d murder their significant other (guys can get jewelry too, right? How else am I going to finish my <a href=\"http:\/\/www.urbandictionary.com\/define.php?term=Pejazzle\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">pejazzle set?<\/a>)\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>Black Friday<\/h2>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/black-fridaySHopperMaddness.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"357\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-40691 lazyload\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/black-fridaySHopperMaddness.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/black-fridaySHopperMaddness-300x214.jpg 300w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 500px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 500\/357;\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.adrants.com\/images\/black-fridaySHopperMaddness.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Image Source<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u00a0<br \/>\nContrary to popular belief, Black Friday wasn&#8217;t the largest shopping day in America until 2005.\u00a0 But thanks to relentless media boredom and ruthless retailer price-cutting, it has become the largest, even spawning a bunch of really annoying titles for concurrent days, including \u201cSofa Sunday\u201d and \u201cCyber Monday\u201d (despite the fact that no one under 35 has used the word \u201ccyber\u201d since 1994).\u00a0 This year, Black Friday broke all records, with <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Black_Friday_(shopping)#Retail_Sales\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">226 million shoppers<\/a> crowding the halls and trampling one another in pursuit of Tickle Me Elmo&#8230;or&#8230;whatever kids are interested in these days.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>That 226 million is more than three-quarters of every man, woman and child in America.\u00a0 Meaning that basically anyone who is physically capable of walking and knocking over fellow moms like a linebacker went shopping a few weeks ago.\u00a0 They spent almost $400 each and collectively spent upward of $50 billion.\u00a0 That means one day easily dwarfs the expenditures of virtually every other major holiday throughout the year.\u00a0 And that&#8217;s just for Black Friday alone.\u00a0 The total Christmas season sees that number roughly <a href=\"http:\/\/askville.amazon.com\/average-american-spend-christmas\/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=270681\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i>double<\/i><\/a>.\u00a0 So next time you hear depressing economic news, remind yourself that\u2014in a sort of modern-day <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Gift_of_the_Magi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Gift of the Magi<\/a> \u2014 Americans are still finding ways to acquire even more credit card debt in order to buy expensive crap they don&#8217;t really need for their loved ones.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 Share There is nothing more American than spending the money that could support a Congolese family for a year on a bunch of crap that we don&#8217;t need.\u00a0 Like those candy hearts for Valentines Day, you know the ones that taste like a mix of bone meal and shattered dreams?\u00a0 Nothing says America like [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":40692,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[7244,7245,3627,3625,5305],"class_list":{"0":"post-40687","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-holidays","9":"tag-materialism-2","10":"tag-shopping","11":"tag-spending","12":"tag-toparticles"},"acf":[],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40687\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businesspundit.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}